


Darkest Before the Dawn

by Neila_Nuruodo



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Fatherly Elidibus, Fluff and Angst, Gen, mostly angst tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-10
Updated: 2020-03-10
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:48:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23094361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Neila_Nuruodo/pseuds/Neila_Nuruodo
Summary: As the Ascians scramble in a futile attempt to save the Thirteenth reflection from being consumed by chaos, Emet-Selch recognizes an unusually bright soul.  Elidibus knows this soul shard cannot be left to be twisted by darkness... and if he feels some personal stake in the matter, it hardly matters when duty demands the same thing his heart would.Vague hints of 5.2 spoilers, nothing concrete.
Relationships: Elidibus & Unukalhai (Final Fantasy XIV)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 22





	Darkest Before the Dawn

Elidibus strode across the twisted landscape toward the black-robed figure standing back from the front lines. The lowered cowl left no question of who had withdrawn from the fighting, but it served all the more to emphasize the question of _why._

“Emet-Selch, what is the matter?”

Emet-Selch turned at his words, revealing a child clinging to his waist. Unexpected. Elidibus narrowed his eyes in study. Emet-Selch had, immediately upon his arrival to the Thirteenth, thrown himself into the fight, desperate to wield his might in the hopes that this raging wall of darkness twisting everything in its path - people, the environment, the very aether itself - might be halted or at least slowed enough that they could discover a means to reverse it before the shard was completely engulfed. What could have caused him to abandon this struggle, this all-important mission? There must be something special about this child.

“Elidibus. What word on the neutralizing front?”

“No breakthrough just yet, but we continue our efforts with all due haste. Who is this?”

“One of the gifted of this shard.” He tilted his head, giving Elidibus a significant look. “I spotted him by how brightly his soul burns, even as he is. He was trying to save others…” He laid a hand gently on top of the youth’s head, gave the hair a gentle stroke. “He fought valiantly - as I would expect of such a soul - but he was plainly outmatched.” He looked away. “He would have been transformed into one of these twisted creatures of darkness. I could not let that happen.” Pale gold peeped through narrow slits as his gaze sought Elidibus’s own. “You understand.”

Elidibus nodded, though it was not, strictly speaking, a question. If he followed Emet-Selch’s carefully phrased hints about this soul aright… He squatted down to the child’s level.

“Hello,” he said, keeping his voice gentle. “I am Elidibus. I am a friend of Emet-Selch’s. He needs to return to the fight, but I can protect you now. Will you come with me?”

Violet eyes peeped out from beneath pale bangs as the young boy pulled his face from where it had been buried in Emet-Selch’s robes. For a moment he studied Elidibus, huge eyes searching his face fearfully. Realizing he must look a frightening enigma to the boy, Elidibus reached up, motions slow, to lower his hood and remove his mask. Indeed, he seemed to relax upon seeing Elidibus’s features and the warm smile he wore. Those striking eyes turned up to Emet-Selch, who ruffled the child’s hair with a smile.

“Go on. He’ll take good care of you.”

Slowly, the boy released his lifeline and turned toward Elidibus. He wrapped his arms now around himself, clenching his middle tightly.

“What is your name?”

The boy mumbled something too soft to hear. Elidibus reached a hand out, palm up, toward him, and waited.

“I give you my word that you are safer with me than anywhere else on this star. My friends and I are trying to stop the darkness consuming it. I need to go and keep helping them. Will you come with me?”

After a moment the child stirred and placed a hand in his. Suspicion coalesced into certainty at the sudden frisson of _warmth_ coursing down his arm and into his heart, but he did not let it show, giving the boy another smile and standing up.

Of course Emet-Selch could not but protect this soul. Elidibus realized he, too, could do naught else.

* * *

It was lost.

Nothing they tried worked fast enough to halt the swelling chaos. Revelations had been made, discoveries to slow or turn aside the darkness, to take it into themselves, but it was too little and too late. What little they had been able to save they now prepared to evacuate.

Failure.

But it was not utter and complete, for a mercy. They had, if naught else, learned much of the process by which they might more successfully cause a rejoining, next time. They would move more slowly and use only a single element, at least until they knew their calculations were sufficiently precise.

Still, the weight of failure hung heavy upon them - and heaviest upon Igeyorhm. She stood aside, head and shoulders bowed, hands fisted. The boy now clung to Elidibus’s side, and he put a gentle hand on his shoulder before making his way to her with him in tow. He said nothing. Indeed, no words could mend the pain, the self-recrimination and anguish within her breast. But he laid his hand on her shoulder in solidarity, rested there a long, poignant moment, giving her a squeeze before releasing her.

“Let us withdraw. We have done all that we can.”

One by one the other Ascians sent themselves unto the rift, to disperse back to the projects they had been called from, sobered now by the catastrophe they had been ultimately unable to prevent. When only the other Unsundered remained, Elidibus knelt once more before the child.

“I am sorry. Everything we knew, everything we tried, was not enough to save your world.”

The boy’s expression didn’t change. He must have seen so much this day… to be so young, and exposed to such suffering, such trauma… it rent Elidibus’s heart.

“I can take you from this place. You cannot bring your body with you, but I can preserve your mind, your soul, so you live on in a way. The alternative is to remain here and eventually fall prey to the dark creatures now roaming this shard.”

The boy squeezed his eyes shut, a grimace twisting his face. “I don’t want to stay.” The pained whisper slipped from between stiff lips. “Please, take me away.”

“What are you doing, Elidibus?”

He twisted toward Lahabrea. “He is gifted. He may be of use to us. And I think it better he not be left to fend for himself here.”

Lahabrea scowled, clearly unconvinced, but Emet-Selch put a hand upon his shoulder, drawing him close and murmuring into his ear. The frown died, replaced by surprise and understanding. Certain that Lahabrea now understood what he intended to do and why, he turned back to the child.

“I need you to trust me. This will be scary, but I will protect you.” He reached out to take his hands, waiting for the violet eyes to open once more before proceeding. He let power connect them, harnessing the child’s Echo and feeding power into his soul’s reservoirs. Slowly, carefully… until there was enough for his purposes. With care he began weaving a binding to connect the mind and soul in a nigh-unbreakable link.

The trust of a child was a precious thing, strange and wonderful to Elidibus. At some point this child had instinctively created a crystal, and he opened even this innermost, precious part of himself at Elidibus’s request. It was well, of course; this let him cement the binding in something persistent, something permanent. But a part of him felt it improper to reach so deeply into one who could not fully understand what he offered. Yet that warmth continued to radiate down his arms into his inner self… he could not let this soul go. Such a gift, if Emet-Selch was not mistaken - and in these matters, he never was - was far too precious to leave behind, to be twisted into one of the nightmare creatures that now ruled this shard. And so he set aside his doubts, his self-reproof, to do what he knew he must.

“It is done,” he told the boy, and stood. Weariness ambushed him, leaving him swaying, and the boy reached up, trying to help stabilize him. The spell passed, and he smiled down at him. “Thank you. It seems that took more out of me than I realized.” Indeed, it had been no small thing; he had had to tap deep reserves of power to complete his work. “I fear I shall need to rest for a time.” One hand gently brushed the child’s cheek. “Perhaps… you would join me? You have been through much, after all; sleep will, I think, help you as well.”

The boy nodded shyly and clung once more close to his side. He drew open a rift, traveling not to another shard as had the others, but to the place where his god slumbered, to His slow-beating heart. The boy looked around with wide eyes at the strange not-place, not speaking, simply wondering at what he saw. Elidibus let him do so, weariness dragging at his bones - but he would not sleep until the boy was ready to, as well.

“I did not catch your name before. Would you tell me again?”

In this place, the violet eyes were luminous with gleaming purple light. Their calm, steadfast gaze considered Elidibus for several seconds.

“I don’t want to use that name any more,” he finally said in a small voice.

Pain caught behind his breastbone, and he lowered himself once more to the boy’s level. “Of course. I fully understand.” He ran a hand over his head. “Elidibus is not actually my name, by the way. It is my title. Would you like a title, too?”

A thoughtful expression stole over the child’s face, and he nodded.

“How do you feel about the title Unukalhai? It will tell anyone who knows it that you are my apprentice, in essence. My student.” Another nod. Elidibus smiled. “I think it suits you.” He opened his arms, and the boy came close, settling against him, relaxing. “Let us sleep for a time, now. I must recover strength… as, I think, should you.” The boy nodded against his chest, and he let his eyes fall closed. Like this, with warmth eddying through his form, it returned him to that time, so long ago, before everything went wrong…

He had nearly drifted to unconsciousness when a tiny whisper roused him. “Thank you.” Blinking back sudden heat in his eyes, a knot in his chest choking his words to silence, he could do naught but hold Unukalhai closer as they drifted once more to oblivion together.


End file.
